Body of victim on its way to India

The Air India flight, carrying the body of the 23-year-old gang rape victim from New Delhi, took off from Changi Airport for India at about 12.30am on Sunday.

On board the plane, chartered by the Indian government to take the paramedical student home to be cremated, were the victim's family parents and two brothers.

The victim, who has never been named, died at Mount Elizabeth Hospital on Saturday morning after doctors at the hospital battled in vain to stabilise her condition.

She was flown to Singapore on Thursday morning for further medical treatment.

This after she sustained serious injuries from the brutal attack on a bus by six men in New Delhi on Dec 16.

Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, Dr T.C.A Raghavan and other embassy staff were with her family by her side when she died.

Earlier in the morning at the hospital after her death, reporters asked him about criticisms in India that she should not have been moved to another country till her condition was more stable.

He said then: "The effort was to give the best possible medical attention and medical treatment and our role in the High Commission was to facilitate that particular medical decision which was that she would get very good treatment in Mount Elizabeth Hospital."

He said that the doctors in Singapore tried their very best. "The team of doctors which had accompanied her from India had fully briefed the doctors here about the injuries suffered, treatment she had undergone, so I would say she received the best possible medical attention in both countries," he said.